There are times in life where you are caught in a moment somewhere that just feels completely amazing and you know that there's no way of satisfactorily sharing that moment, the feeling, the level of awe you felt. This is one of those moments.

New camera, low light, lots of people, distractions all lead to these photos being a lot grainier than I am happy with but, out of respect to 'that moment' I'm going to share them anyway.

The Empire State Building was one of the first things on 'the list' when we were preparing to visit New York. There's a few 'high up' experiences in NYC and although the views are wonderful to visit the Empire State Building, top of the Rockerfeller Centre and One World Observatory in day light would all be, well a bit samey. So we visited the top of the Rockerfeller Centre in the day time and the top of the Empire State Building at night. Not only was it a more forgiving temperature (it had been a really hot week) but the views although the same were a whole different side of things.

Empire State Building, NYC, at night

Empire State Building, NYC, at night

Empire State Building, NYC, at night

Tips

Make use of the late opening hours in peak seasons

Allow plenty of time for your visit - there's strict security and a queuing system in operation. There's also not a great deal of room outside when you get up there, room to pass people standing admiring the view but that's about it and you will likely need to wait for a turn to get to the edge to view. In this respect if you were short on time and had to choose between going up the Empire State Building and the Rockerfeller Centre I would recommend the Rockerfeller Centre for space and views.

Don't be bullied by some of the 'official vendors' trying to sell you tickets on the street outside. They were very pushy with us, we apologized and moved on but they kept following us, insisting that they would be cheaper and faster than buying tickets inside, claiming the waiting time to be at least an hour. This sort of behaviour puts me off every time so we went inside the Empire State Building and bought tickets and were up the top within half an hour. Since returning I see on Trip Advisor that other people have had bother from these official sellers too.